Response
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Somehow it was ‘love’ at first sight. The magic took place right away as souls were bonded and passions rose high. How could there be anything but a ‘love’ response to someone so attractive, charming and wonderful? Something in the way they moved, smiled, spoke, or acted qualified them for getting the favor of love. They deserved only devotion and heart felt commitment for being such an incredible person. It was just something that happened as a natural response to who and what they were, and the fall into this condition of the heart was really beyond control, just the result of looking or being treated in that ‘special’ way.
This heightened feeling of affection and emotional attraction is often given the label of ‘love’ and reserved for that special someone that has earned it by the impression they make based upon who they are. For those, on the other hand, who aren’t seen as physically attractive and act in a way that is annoying and offensive, there is reason found to respond in a way quite opposite to that given the beautiful creature. Where that ‘deserving’ person will get special consideration, a helping and supporting hand, and the commitment of time and resources, the ‘unqualified’ individual that wasn’t born with the right set of legs, dimples, status, brains, or personality will get overlooked, ignored and forgotten. This thing called ‘love’, after all, is just the natural response to what is seen and how one is treated. Given the certain qualified, or disqualified set of conditions this will be the natural and spontaneous response.
With God’s love, though, there is something quite different. In God’s response of love to the world there is no requirement of looks, brains, or personality in order to qualify. His response is something prepared ahead of time based upon who He is rather than the condition of the one He is looking upon. He, with only consideration for our salvation apart from any merit on our part, offers devotion, commitment, affection, provision and companionship not just for a lifetime, but for eternity. Instead of holding our faults and sins against us, He forgave before being asked and took it upon Himself to provide for our complete restoration. While we were still sinners, looking and acting anything but pretty, He treated us as if we were the most deserving ‘qualifiers’. Seeing potential rather than status quo, He prepared the response of giving His own Son to someone His love saw as more than worthy.
This love of a different kind is what made it possible for us to know life in Christ and its incredible hope for this life and beyond. As it has provided for our life, though, it has also become our source of continued life. Born into this new and living way by the blood of Jesus, we’ve become new creatures with new responses. Like our Father we’ve been given a nature that responds based upon who we are rather than who we’re seeing or how we’re being treated. This expression of God’s kind of love, the predetermined response of favor, forgiveness and provision will be what validates and establishes us in our position as His children. Acting and responding as He would will state much more emphatically than any words that we are indeed His own, His offspring. Abiding more and more in the love He’s given us will produce in us the ability to have His love response ready for every person we encounter, and in providing His way of love we will be established ever more in the true life of abundance in Christ. Who we are in Him will become so much more important than how we’re treated, and the level of our love response will directly correspond to the level of our transformation into His image. Our life in Him will ever be directly related to His lover response through us.
This love that is so far removed from what would be our natural human response is the essential element that gives breath, nourishment and vitality to our life in Christ. As we’ve been forgiven and cared for in our undeserving state, so we will begin to respond in forgiveness, restoration, and care to those around us, no matter who they might be. For every opportunity to be offended and respond with disdain and disrespect, the life of God will rise up with a response of love, completely disarming the old motivation for retaliation and enabling the world to see through us the incredibly empowering expression of God’s love. As His response is our life, so our response will be His life through us.
